"Designing Women" reboot in the works

[slick jones]

Please register in order to view this content

 

 

Who could possibly fill these shoes? 

I can't think of an actress that could do them justice.

[Soaplovers]

 

Dixie Carter had a dry wit..she could say something dead pan and it would be hilarious and when Julia got dramatic even funnier.  

 

I recall coming back from a week long vacation where I had no access to outside news and my mom telling me of dixie's death..and I was in shock.  My mom was even more in shock since she had been a fan of hers dating back to her edge of night days.

 

No way anyone could fill her shoes.  A one of a kind.

[KMan101]

 

And who was clamoring for The Facts of Life? Or Designing Women? LOLOLOL

I have mixed feelings on this one. We'll see. I need to know more of what they plan to do. I'm slightly hopeful considering the original creator is in charge of it.

 

I don't think they'd "replace" Julia. 

 

This reboot has me more curious than anything, in terms of how they'll handle it.

 

Annie Potts said if she got a call she'd do it.

 

I don't think anyone should be looking at "filling those shoes"

 

I highly doubt this is a case of "a new Julia" "a new Suzanne" ... at least it shouldn't be. That would be the biggest mistake they could make. I have no problems with a fresh start but I'd expect at least some ties to the original series. But who knows? I really need to hear more about this.

[John]

What if Julia's son, had a daughter who wants to revive Sugarbakers and Suzanne and Mary Jo help?

[KMan101]

That's the most basic and likely scenario if they decide they want to tie it to the original version.

 

Personally I think they need to go the route of tying it to the original. With Facts of Life, a clean reboot is the best bet. Maybe some nods, but I'd rather it be more One Day at a Time, take the idea and make it for today's audience. Designing Women just wouldn't have the draw without the OG ladies, IMHO. Facts of Life could work in a variety of ways. (But I struggle to see either really being massive hits but who knows?). I'd love them to surprise me like ODAT did. Fuller House is a nice continuation if you're a fan of the original. Roseanne picked up fairly well. It's possible.

 

But it's going to become too cluttered.

[Franko]

With new casting, the characters of Jennifer and Camilla Sugarbaker (or even Randa Oliver) could be candidates to complete the new team.

[KMan101]

Not to mention, Mary Jo had two kids, who likely had kids. So they could also be used or worked in. But it'd likely have to revolve around Julia's grandchild (boy or girl) taking on the business. I could see all the women sharing the weight of Julia's part. No one can replace Julia but her presence can still absolutely be felt.

[Vee]

Yeah, I think the best option is a mix of the ODAAT and Fuller House approaches - the same sociopolitical ethos (a la ODAAT) but some new younger leads backstopped by the members of the original cast willing to appear regularly or semi-regularly (FH). With Bloodworth-Thomason back as a singular voice I think it'd be very doable.

 

(I think a similar but more divorced take on the same is possible with FOL, as I've said - use mostly the school and new students, but have the original show's cast reappear on occasion or allow Lisa Whelchel's Blair to run the school. Or you could reboot it with just the core concept a la ODAAT. With DW I don't think you can. You need those big personalities in the remaining characters/actors and the creator.)

[All My Shadows]

I agree with your last point. Further, I think so much of what made DW the show that it became was down to its location/setting, both Atlanta and the interior design business. You can't play with that formula as much as you could with ODAAT's, which, at its core, was about a family fighting against the odds. Pretty easy to translate to new characters. DW...not so much.

For that reason, I'm not sure DW would work, regardless of how it's brought back. Maybe "work" isn't the word. If LBT is there and the surviving cast members are there, a very limited sequel series could work (the thought of Julia dying is giving me First Wives' Club vibes). More of a reunion mini-series like Back to the Cul-de-Sac. Just a peak into the lives of these characters we love, but not trying to rekindle any fires (because you just can't without Dixie and Meshach or even Alice Ghostley).

 

The only character from the original that I can see being the leader of a new set of women is Mary Jo, and Annie Potts is busy, so...

[David_Vickers]

  I cannot imagine DESIGNING WOMEN without Dixie Carter's Julia Sugarbaker, not to mention Meshach Taylor's Anthony or Alice Ghostley's Bernice.   

[Vee]

ABC picks up Bloodworth-Thomason's 'sequel':

 

 

[Khan]

I'm more inclined to give it a chance since it isn't a reboot "per se," but I still think it's gonna be tough not to see Dixie there.

[BetterForgotten]

The show also doesn't seem compatible with anything else on ABC. If they order it, I wonder if they'll know how to schedule or market it. 

 

Would be nice to see Delta as Suzanne again - if only to erase that terrible Women of the House spinoff from memory.  Jean and Annie too obviously. 

[Vee]

I think it's of a piece with, say, black-ish or The Conners. The problem is that now both those shows have baggage; the latter by virtue of its new existence, the former by way of Kenya Barris' very public conflict with ABC over the pulled anti-Trump episode.

[SFK]

Well. I wish this project the best. I hope they cast new moulds and don't fall too easily into the trap of having "the nuJulia", "the nuSuzanne", et cetera, and we did see that already when Dixie's daughters played her nieces in the original. I'm giving this a fair shot. I'm most apprehensive about how they may choose to fill the Anthony spot.

I'm over being bothered by these reboots/sequels/reinterpretations. No one's forcing us to consider them canon, let alone, to watch.